The Voice – First Live Shows – The Coaches Did Not Take Through The Best Performers

by Reality Raver

It was Team Seal and Team Joel singing in the first live show and both teams showed there was not a lot of depth in either of them. What was interesting was both coaches decided to take through singers that were not their best performers of the night but ones they wanted to work with again. This was particularly tough in Team Joel as Kyomi Vellas who had the best performance of the night may not get through on the popular vote as she is up against Michael Paynter who has a fan base from his previous career and Michael Stangel who not only sang well but has the back story of having a heart and brain tumour.

Michael Paynter was first up singing for Team Joel with Bruno Mar’s hit Locked Out Of Heaven. This time he played the guitar but the song seemed to high for him he came across as a bit screechy. He does have a confident on stage persona and the hair cut was an improvement. Delta who is clearly a fan said he has the potential to win and that he was a good singer and then she added he was a bit pitchy here and there. He probably had the weakest vocal performance on his team on the night.

Next was Michael Stangel singing Four Walls. He has an interesting voice and he sang it really well but he is not a superstar. His compelling back story will bring him in votes and he got through with the most votes last week so clearly has a fan base.

The intense Danny Ross singing The Joker was up next. They appeared to be determined to give him the stoner ’60’s styling which will polarise people. Not that he had worry about getting the votes as Joel took him through to the next round saying he still had not finished working with him. It was an interesting rendition and he bounced around the stage but I don’t think he will win this season’s series for Joel as he is far too polarising. You are either going to like him or hate him.

Kyomi Vella was last up for team Joel and it was no surprise she busted out a Bjork song It’s Oh So Quiet. She showed just how amazing her voice is. She was the stand out of his team which Joel also said, and she is giving something reality TV fans like and that is growth in each of her performances. Each time she sings it is better then her last performance. Tonight she marked herself as a contender, however she now has to rely on the public vote and if she doesn’t get through it will be an injustice. However expect her to get signed by a record company.

It was Team Seal’s turn next and all of the song choice for all his singers were not good. There was not one compelling performance.

First up was Mitchell Anderson who sang the Doug Parkinson arrangement of The Beatles song Dear Prudence. He did not hit a bum note but the song went nowhere. Ricky said he was so powerful on stage and Seal thought it was the best he had performed it. By the way ladies Mitchell is married and his first baby is on the way.

Busker Alex Gibson sang Johnny Cash’s Prison Blues and he was a bit overshadowed by the band but he has a nice voice and a lot of likeability.

Jac Stone sang Alanis Morrisett Uninvited she had the smoke machine and the guitarists. Sure it has the vocal gymnastics in it but it was boring. She has a good voice but not sure she has the star quality. It is unlikely she will get any further.

Harrison Craig was given the lucky last spot and he sang I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You. It was good and the judges loved it and gave it a standing ovation but again it was not incredible. Harrison appears to have transformed by this show as now his stutter is barely there. It has gone from a completely debilitating speech impediment to something that is barely noticeable. I suspect it has more to do with his speech therapy he has had for many years. Obviously it is still an issue for him as it looks like he would best sit in the musical theatre world rather than being just a singer.

Surprisingly Seal took forward Alex Gibson into the next round which leaves Mitchell and Jac Stone hung out to dry as Harrison will get the popular vote to go forward in the competition.

Celia was probably the best on Delta’s team – she sang Jolene and despite not having quite enough passion was a good performance. Jackie sang a Alanis Morissette song and was fairly good as well. My guess if they’ll go through to the text round.

Ricky has the best team by a long way. Catarina Torres sang a J-Lo song and killed it, Miss Murphey sang a Beyonce song and according to Seal was better than Beyonce herself. Simon Meli compared to the girls was a bit forgettable and sang a Rolling Stones Song. Luke Kennedy sang John Farnham’s ‘Please Don’t Ask Me’ and killed it. My husband said he felt as though Farney himself was signing it.

You missed the better half RR! Ricky has the strongest team by a long, long way. Besides Harrison, there’s no real star in Team Seal I don’t think.

Yes I agree that Ricky has by far the strongest team. It is a scheme that each coach will loose one person as clearly Ricky while team would still be here next week if we were voting for 4 weakest from the top 16. Mrs Murphy is still my favorite although I’m not sure that I like her song last night. But she is mesmerizing whatever she sings! Dont care about anyone much in team Seal, have someone soft spot for Danny Ross, I’m finding him interesting and I like that he is not a puppet like most of the others and is just who he is! I definitely want to see more of him! In team Delta I was somewhat disappointed with Jacky, she really has to get hold of herself and gain some confidence as the nerves will impact her performance. The ‘cool cat’ was fabulous as always, I’m glad that we will see him again!

RR, don’t be silly. I was confused too as I turned over to watch Major Crime, thinking that The Voice would be finished at 8.30 or close after. They hadn’t promoted that all four teams would be singing, and I think most people would have thought it would have been two teams last night. Ye gods, it went on forever!

I think Ricky was the only coach who actually picked the best performer – Luke Kennedy – but Miss Murphy was very close. I felt for Caterina Torres because she has an excellent voice but was given a hard song to sing, as well as a dance routine, so she was patchy in places. That said, Ricky picks the best songs by far. All the other coaches’ choices were pretty rubbish last night.

Delta’s choices are kind of annoying me. I don’t think she roots for the underdog – she relates to winners (if we were still in high school, the “popular” people). Like Michael Paynter & Steve Clisby, her two favourites. I think both Celia and Jackie performed much better than Steve and she should have taken one of them through. Tim was clearly the weakest in his team, mostly due to the shoddy song choice, so hopefully they will get through anyway.

I think this is pretty much a Harrison, Luke, Celia race if iTunes is anything to go by. All three far outsell any of the others, with each of their prior songs re-entering the top 100 each voting round. I’m hoping for Celia to win, personally.

Honesty, Seal has gotta be smoking something funny this season, because what comes out of his mouth is such mind-numbingly, self-important drivel and his song choices are SO uninspired his singers never really get a chance to ‘soar’. Oh hang on, he was a bit like that last year too. Silly me!

Celia is mesmerising and my hope to win this year. She is breathtaking. And I am really loving Simon Meli, his performance qualities are awesome and unparalleled this year. However, I am absolutely baffled how Rosalind (above) could call him forgettable. How bizarre. Why doesn’t anybody like Rock anymore? The currency given to Soft Pop, R&B and some drippy ballads is making for dull TV viewing.

I don’t really get the whole Steve Clisby thing. Yeah, he’s OK, but as someone else pointed out elsewhere, he’s the kind of guy you’d see on the RSL club circuit.

This was the night The Voice and the judges lost all credibility. Most of the performances were lame, which may have been partly due to some appalling song choices by the coaches.

Team Joel was boring until Kyomi took to the stage and livened things up a bit, but then she didn’t have much competition so far. Joel rightly acknowledged her as the standout so far and then promptly took Danny thru to the final. WTF? I mean I do like Danny’s swag but his comatose reggae version of “The Joker” was, well, a joke.

My suspicions were raised.

Next up was Team Seal, Mitchel Anderson delivered as usual but he ain’t no Doug Parkinson. He was good but not great. Alex Gibson was the worst of the bunch and unbelievably Seal took him thru. The fix is in people.

By this stage I was getting thoroughly peed off with all the judges saying how much they loved all the contestants and how great they all were when clearly they weren’t. Where’s Simon Cowel or Dicko when you need them?

This show is in serious need of a reality injection.

Next up was Team Delta and she seriously sabotaged two great performers Jackie and Celia by giving them songs everybody was uncomfortable with. I mean Joelene? The butt of a thousand parodies and C&W jokes. C’mon!

To top it off she gave Steve Clisby a song straight out of the soul survivors’ songbook. I mean I like Steve and I’m glad he went thru, but he could have sang that song in his sleep.

I smell a setup, that’s three out of three so far and the judges seem be playing strategy instead of playing fair.

And could someone please tell Delta to stop talking, it’s embarrassing. She seems to have taken a Goldie pill or is on the same gear as Seal.

Next was Team Ricky, and it’s a pity he can’t take all four of his team straight to final, ‘cos they were all in a class above everyone else, with the possible exception of Steve C.

Caterina is simply a star, a power pop princess, Miss Murphy is the soul Queen and Simon is the retro rock god, leaving Luke as some hybrid popera thing.

True to the night’s weird form, Ricky picked Luke, another perplexing choice, so that’s four out of four weird decisions.

Which means some of the better singers won’t get thru while a few ordinary ones have been given a free pass.

All in all a very disappointing show. If it comes back next year I want a honest bastard as one of the judges.

Not sure why Mark thinks it was a weird/perplexing decision for Ricky to choose Luke? He would have got through by popular vote, regardless. By choosing Luke, Ricky can’t be accused of playing “favorites” – the public votes are in fact determining who goes through to the next round for all four of his performers.
Besides, if it’s down to viewers’ votes, Luke could easily win this thing.

Perhaps what he meant was that Ricky’s strategy didn’t align with the other coaches’ strategy, in that the others picked a singer who they thought was worthy of the next round but who might not get the popular vote. Ricky didn’t seem to care about that tactic, just wanted to make sure Luke was through since, realistically, he might be the only one to match Harrison on Seal’s team who is the odds-on favourite to win. If you think about it like that, it was an aggressive tactic by Ricky to ultimately win the show.

Saying all that, Ricky’s team was so solid on all four fronts compared to the other teams that he would have been damned whoever he chose to save.

Mark said “Next up was Team Delta and she seriously sabotaged two great performers Jackie and Celia by giving them songs everybody was uncomfortable with. I mean Joelene? The butt of a thousand parodies and C&W jokes. C’mon!”

I have to say that I haven’t really been a fan of Celia as I think Miss Murphy just overshadows her so much. I’m also far from being a C&W fan. I’ve ever really listened to the lyrics of Joelene either as I have never been interested when I’ve heard it. But last night I did and I have to say I loved it!!! Celia really did the song justice with her version. The emotion in her voice was great and IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS but I think Delta did a good job in coaching her to get this emotive performance. Now I’m going to wash my hands after typing a compliment about Delta… haha.

Looks to be fare thee well for Caterina … she’s waaaay down the itunes chart – gone from 50-ish a couple of days ago to 70-ish now. Miss M and Simon still holding relatively strong – around the 20s/30s, respectively.
Can’t say I’ll be sad to see her go, good voice, etc, but too generic for me, wouldn’t recognize her voice if I heard it on the radio.
Harrison, Luke and Celia still in the itunes top 5. I like Miss M but can’t see her toppling Luke on the public vote … but you never know.

Personally, I can’t wait for the final 4 duets – coaches and contestants.
Will Seal go down on one knee to sing with Harrison ???

Mel & George, I’m not really sure how all the voting stuff works, either – but one itunes purchase ($1.69, i think ?) counts for two votes, and to vote on facebook you have to buy credits – which i guess you then use to purchase a download from the itunes store ???
Unlike last year, there is no method of casting a free vote.
So, because of the two votes for one purchase, the itunes chart can be a good indication of who is going through – at least at this stage. Probably the finals get a lot more sms votes?

Anon, I’ve yet to hear anything I’d be willing to pay for so I’ll keep my licence for now. Besides, there’s untold great music I do want and haven’t downloaded yet – so that’ll keep my busy for a long while.

Oh, how painful it was to hear Simon Meli destroy Sympathy For The Devil. Out of tune try hard.

I’m just glad I saw The Rolling Stones slay an audience with this song in 1995. They mucked up the beginning but by the time the song was finished , it had been transformed into a masterpiece of high drama and lifted their show to an even higher level. I’ll never forget it….

Simon Meli got the tune and removed any semblance it ever had to rock and roll. Embarrassing.

As Georgie has said, only three or four of these contestants are even listenable. Steve Clisby and a couple of the female singers. These are good , but nothing special or heaven forbid…worth downloading.

I did love delta’s green lurex hot pants suit. She has worn a couple of nice outfits and I prefer funky delta to Delta the Diva.
Love Miss Murphy, Steve Clisby, Kyomi but I already have Bjork singing sh, and also wouldn’t buy this except maybe Steve and Miss Murhy, if she doesn’t do Beyonce songs.